Our minds are malleable. The more excellence we surround ourselves with, the more it will eventually rub off and transcend into every facet of our lives. It begins to shape our worldview and perceptions of life. It affects our intuition. And, most obviously, it influences the way we express ourselves both verbally and on paper.

Reading to me is addictive. Without question I’ve gain incredible value from it and while I may not necessarily have the time to ferociously devour books as I use to, I’ve still managed to established a methodical approach to only reading material which I feel will provide me with insane amount of value and/or enlighten me on a topic I knew nothing about but always had interest in.

I don’t necessarily think you have to become a parent to comprehend the value of time but as a parent of 2 young ones, I can tell you that’s what it took for me. Medium is by far one of my preferred sources to read something fascinating on practically any topic. I simply launch the app, swipe and read through at least 5 articles a day. I still cringe at a lot of the writing I do on the site but I can tell you that habitually reading has given me the confidence to put my thoughts and opinions out there.

I love Jason’s statement on this whole topic of reading where he says, “if you just read a few books on a single topic, you’ll seem like an expert to everyone around you.” I read a bit of everything and 4 out of 5 times it’s been that same quench to educated myself more that’s served as great conversation starters when the other person may not have anything fascinating to share.

In the end, we should read more if we aspire to be able to write better but above all else, it’s allowed me to expand my knowledge of people, places, cultures and just develop my overall personality and no harm comes from all that.